Editor’s note: From time to time, Ira Winderman will jump in with longer analysis of some bigger issues. These “Quick Takes” appeared previously as stories on NBCSports.com and will now appear within ProBasketballTalk instead.

There is a ritual in NBA locker rooms when it comes to electing union reps.

That’s when the veterans scramble for bathroom breaks, when the league’s most outspoken players disappear, when the unsuspecting find out they have been elected.

Take the Rockets, for example.

Second-year forward Joey Dorsey, hardly a player well versed with the labor acrimony that has already gotten the league into heated discussions about a collective-bargaining agreement that won’t take effect until 2011-12.

Freshly back from a stint in the D-League, Dorsey was informed Tuesday in Miami that he has been elected his team’s union representative.

Why?

Apparently because his new teammates thought he was going to Dallas, anyway, for the D-League All-Star Game. So why not just send him to the union meeting, as well. That works, except that because he got called up to the NBA, he can’t play in the D-League game. Now he just heads to Dallas for the meeting.

He is not the only interesting choice.

The Heat’s representative? No, not high-profile Dwyane Wade or high-salaried Jermaine O’Neal, but rather where-have-you-gone James Jones.

In fact, the current union board, the one charged with crafting the new labor agreement in concert with David Stern’s cutthroat band of henchmen, is loaded with players either currently working on the minimum scale or headed there, players such as Adonal Foyle, Theo Ratliff, Mo Evans, Keyon Dooling and Etan Thomas.

Even union president Derek Fisher is at a stage where his $5 million salary this season could turn into something closer to the minimum next summer, when he stands as a free agent.

For all the bravado coming out of the union about fighting Stern at every turn, this is an executive board that comes from a far lower rent district than one would expect at this negotiating table.

No Kobe. No LeBron. No Shaq. None of the players who could find their knees bashed in the process.

Influential agents certainly will put pressure on Executive Director Billy Hunter to fight the good fight.

But if it is to the point that Fisher is union president, Foyle the top vice president and Jones the third-ranking union leader, then perhaps that apathy could be parlayed into the ultimate comeuppance for the disinterested high end.

For example, what if Stern, to all the draconian measures he already has forwarded to the union, says, “You know what guys, here’s one more: We also plan to raise the minimum salary for everyone to $1.5 million or even $2 million. Everyone would make at least that. Guaranteed.”

That is more that Foyle and Ratliff currently are earning, likely more than Fisher, Dooling, Evans and Jones will earn on their next deals.

It would serve the majority. Provide an upgrade. In a league where careers are fleeting, the loss of any paycheck to a lockout would be money never regained.

If the players with the most at stake elect to send their D-League to the bargaining table, can’t be bothered enough to make the effort, majority rule could lead to a rude awakening.

It is the rare case when the end of the bench could determine the game’s outcome.

The NBA, like the NFL, is first and foremost a business seeking profit. When confronted with social issues, from Donald Sterling to “I can’t breathe” shirts, the NBA has always kept an eye on its wallet.

With the threat of anthem protests looming, the NBA proactively met with players to head off any kneeling. That was business strategy, nothing grander.

The NFL is just trying to get to the same point with a similar policy.

But the NFL already alienated its players through the heavy-handed implementation of this policy and years of other issues. The NBA has established greater trust from its players, both by finessing them in talks about societal issues and actually standing behind them, like the Bucks did with Sterling Brown.

There are plenty of opportunities to criticize the NFL relative to the NBA. The leagues’ national-anthem policies are not a good one.

And spare me the idea that leaders trying to divide us from on high is What’s Wrong With Our Country. Centuries of racism have already divided us.

Some leaders, like Donald Trump, exploit those divisions. Other leaders talk fancifully of unity without actually reconciling what caused the divisions.

The 76ers center made just the All-NBA second team, landing behind the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis. Davis surged after Cousins went down, earning overall credit from All-NBA voters, who were also increasingly likely to view him as a center rather than just a forward.

As a result, Davis made the All-NBA first team at center – costing Embiid about $29 million over the next five years.

Embiid’s contract extension, which kicks in next season, calls for his starting salary to be 25% of the salary cap (the typical max for a player with his experience level). If he made the All-NBA first team, his starting salary would have been 30% of the salary cap .

Though the exact cap won’t be determined until July, here’s what Embiid is projected to earn on his standard max and what he could’ve earned on the super max (with 8% raises in both cases):

Obviously Embiid will still earn a lot of money, and he and Philadelphia have a bright future.

But it’s hard not to think, if Cousins didn’t get hurt, Embiid would be even richer.

HOUSTON (AP)– The Houston Rockets will wear patches on their jerseys to honor the victims of the school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, on Thursday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

The patches will read: “Santa Fe HS.” It’s one of several tributes the team plans following Friday’s shooting. Eight students and two teachers died at the school, located 30 miles from downtown Houston.

The school’s high school choir will perform the national anthem. There will be a moment of silence and a video tribute before tipoff.

Santa Fe’s senior class and administrators have been invited to attend the game as guests of owner Tilman Fertitta. The Rockets also will honor first responders on the court.